If you go to a tour make sure to have them answer true questions about accreditation, testing, where is the money coming from, etc. I know someone who attended an info session and said it seemed like a big marketing ploy. No one was asking serious questions and they were not providing anything other than slick marketing.

I would stay far away - at least until it’s a proven school which past projects with Mr. Whittle show it may not really happen.

His charter school history in NY is less than stellar. Hard to believe anyone in the DMV area would send a kid there.

Anonymous wrote:I kept thinking it was a preschool or daycare.

Same. I thought it was supposed to mimic a lisp.

I kept thinking it was a preschool or daycare.

Anonymous wrote:Horrible name. Sounds like someone is saying “little” but in a cutesy way.

Yes! Everytime I hear the ad it makes me cringe.

There's an interesting documentary on the Avenues. Worth watching (raises a range of public policy and sociological issues).

https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/class-divide

Seems like a gamble.

Horrible name. Sounds like someone is saying “little” but in a cutesy way.

Has anyone not heard of it? They advertise on NPR

We heard great things! It is too expensive for us however, and this beingbtheir first year, they don’t have much resources for FA... we met with one of the teachers/administrator and she was fantastic. I love their global view of education... my kids are still little (oldest will be in k next year) so who knows... maybe for middle school?

I am very, very dubious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/nyregion/the-best-school-75-million-can-buy.html

From that article:
The for-profit model for primary and secondary schools, while popular abroad, is relatively untested in the United States. And while tuition at Avenues will cost about the same as Horace Mann’s or Collegiate’s in 2012 — almost $40,000 annually — the new school has no track record.

The same cannot be said of Mr. Whittle, whose last venture, Edison Schools, did not revolutionize public education as he had envisioned or make the money he had thought he could

Even further back: http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bad-Management_Has-Avenues-Mastermind-Chris-Whittle-Learned-His-Lesson.pdf


He sounds like a con artist.

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth applying to a new school?

The recent NY Times article about the private school in Louisiana is a cautionary tale about sending your kids to school that have no track record and about which you know little beyond marketing.

They keep posting here to keep their name recurring on this board. Mostly they are trying to figure out the current buzz (if any) in the parent community.

Looks interesting but very expensive

Is it worth applying to a new school?